Friends
in today’s Gospel Jesus presents a child as the model for his disciples
who want to be the most important. Jesus lays out for his disciples
what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, how he will be rejected,
tortured, and killed. Oblivious to this, the disciples are discussing
who among them is the most important. For Jesus, the path to greatness
lies on the road to Calvary, to self-forgetting love; for the
disciples—and for most men of most ages—it lies along the road to
ego-inflation.
What
is the antidote? A child is proposed as a kind of living icon to these
ambitious apostles. We notice first how Jesus physically identifies with
the child, sitting down at his level and placing his arms around him.
It is as though he is saying that he himself is like a child. How so?
Children don’t know how to dissemble, how to be one way and act another.
They are what they are; they act in accordance with their deepest
nature.
Why
was this story of Jesus’ identification with children preserved by all
of the synoptic Gospels? Somehow it gets close to the heart of Jesus’
life and message.
My son, when you come to serve the LORD,
stand in justice and fear,
prepare yourself for trials.
Be sincere of heart and steadfast,
incline your ear and receive the word of understanding,
undisturbed in time of adversity.
Wait on God, with patience, cling to him, forsake him not;
thus will you be wise in all your ways.
Accept whatever befalls you,
when sorrowful, be steadfast,
and in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold and silver are tested,
and worthy people in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and God will help you;
trust in him, and he will direct your way;
keep his fear and grow old therein.
You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy,
turn not away lest you fall.
You who fear the LORD, trust him,
and your reward will not be lost.
You who fear the LORD, hope for good things,
for lasting joy and mercy.
You who fear the LORD, love him,
and your hearts will be enlightened.
Study the generations long past and understand;
has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed?
Has anyone persevered in his commandments and been forsaken?
has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?
Compassionate and merciful is the LORD;
he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble
and he is a protector to all who seek him in truth.
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise."
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
"What were you arguing about on the way?"
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
"If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
"Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me."
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